NEVERENDING STORY: Viviana Guerra won praise for...

NEVERENDING STORY: Viviana Guerra won praise for battling a gang that terrorizes her North Hollywood street, defiantly cooperating with police and testifying in court. Friday, she got to see a judge sentence a gang member to prison for threatening her (B1). . . . But, she told the judge, his pals “totally destroyed” her car in retaliation.

ONE RINGIE-DINGIE: A new federal regulation requires cable TV companies--notorious for being hard to contact--to answer phone calls in 30 seconds and put an actual human being on the line in another 30. A spot check found Valley-area companies complying, with times from 3 seconds to 35. . . At the tiny Acton Cable Co., where the same person can answer phones and install the service, callers get a machine.

DAY ONE: The Valley’s two new representatives, Richard Alarcon (above) and Laura Chick, joined other newcomers learning to be L.A. City Council members--how to cast a vote, get the best seat, find the junk food and repaint the office (B1). . . . Key lesson for Alarcon: His Metrolink train from the northeast Valley leaves at 8:02--he almost missed it the first day.

FAMILY VALUES: Between Asian immigrants and American-born converts to meditation, Buddhism has grown into a small niche among U.S. religions. The Religion Column (B9) reports their new problem: How to raise children as Buddhists in a land where there are so few of them. . . . A North Hollywood Buddhist conclave found a stumbling block--Buddhists aren’t organized for this sort of thing.

STAR WARS: Major space station contractors, including Canoga Park’s Rocketdyne, keenly await the winner of an internal NASA struggle over the proposed smaller station the White House saved from budget trimmers (D1). . . . Hundreds of aerospace jobs are at stake.